As a young parent, you would have encountered various questions from your friends and families: “Is your child talking yet? Is your baby standing up on his/her own? Has the baby taken the first steps?” etc. These aren’t just social niceties about your child, rather vital skill sets that map the expected developmental milestones for a child. Every child is unique and develops at their own pace.
“What we observe, changes what we know”. Child development is fascinating to observe and keeping a record of these milestones creates childhood memories for the years to come.
These developmental milestones are functional skills or age-specific tasks that most children exhibit within a certain age range. These yardsticks are used as a part of the developmental surveillance by professionals and parents to measure a child’s functional abilities and growth.
Tracking the milestones on various aspects of your child’s development is important as it helps you:
- Understand your child better and worry lesser
Tracking milestones help you understand your child even better. You now know what they’re thriving at, what they’re struggling with and most importantly, you bond with your child giving that timely support and encouragement. Knowing the normal age range of a milestone could give you
- Figure out if your child is a little behind
The path of child development is not in a simple straight line. Children develop at different speeds and that’s okay. Some reach their milestones a little early, some a little later. A little lag in a specific milestone in isolation might not be a huge concern. However, tracking your child’s milestones gives you an overall guide of your child’s growth and development and helps promote the optimal health and well-being.
- Get an early diagnosis
Tracking milestones will help you notice if an aspect of your child’s development is lagging behind more-than-expected for the given age. The detailed insights from tracking the milestones will help your healthcare professionals map all your child’s skills, identify and monitor any developmental problems in the early stages. Having this information handy goes a long way in figuring out the treatment plan.
- Consider an early intervention
In the likelihood of your child having a condition that requires intervention, tracking milestones get your foot in the door early on. An early recognition followed with an appropriate early intervention ensures your child achieve the best potentials he/she is destined for.
Your child’s first step or the first word is always going to have a special place in your heart. And knowing exactly when it happened and keeping a record of all “fascinating firsts” – these will have a special place in your life as well as in your child’s life.
Nurturey’s ‘Milestone Tracker’ does all these for you. It shares all the age-expected milestones in your child’s growth and development, reminds you of the current milestone or the upcoming ones, helps you record, and keep a tab on all the different milestones. For more information, visit www.nurturey.com.
